


Hit The Lights and Go Home

by benDghey (Jahgyong)



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Dirty Talk, Cockblocking, Coming of Age, Drunk/High Kissing, Fair, Fluff, Hair-pulling, House Party, M/M, Pining, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 03:32:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15900027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jahgyong/pseuds/benDghey
Summary: At 7PM, Jack had arrived at the aftergrad party at Flyzik's house with his friends.About 8PM, he had been informed about Zack's disappearance.Around 9PM, he had kissed his best friend.The next day, he began having regrets.Two days later, Jack decides to fix this mess.





	1. Chapter 1

“Where’s Zack?”

Rian’s question lingered in the congested, perspiration-filled, alcohol-scented air. Jack blinked, focusing on what features he could see of his friend in the dim lighting. He wasn’t even sure if this was Rian he was talking to. All he could make out was short hair, a Red Solo cup in the dude’s hand, and a girl pressed against his waist. Misinterpreting Jack’s confusion as misunderstanding, Rian elaborated on his question, raising his voice so he could be heard over the pounding bass resonating from the speakers on the other side of the room:

“Hey, Jack, have you seen Zack? I haven’t seen him in a while and I’m kind of worried. Cass and I have been looking for him, but we still haven’t found him.”

“What?” Jack shouted back, frowning. He’d only caught his name, _Zack, Cass,_ and _looking_ from whatever Rian had just said. Not only was the music extremely loud (and shitty), but his mind was elsewhere. A combination of pot and booze was to blame for this.

“Zack’s missing,” the girl at Rian’s side repeated, leaning toward Jack, who just stared at her blankly as people continued dancing and chattering in small groups around them. He continued watching as Rian turned to the girl (Cass?) to say something to her. And then it hit him.

“I’ll go look,” he offered, stepping away from them and slipping through the clusters of his newly-graduated classmates and their guests until he wound up in the kitchen. There, he spotted his best friend, Alex. Now that he was away from the deafening music and cramped living room, his head cleared slightly, or enough to register the fact that Alex and another friend, Bryan, stood before him.

“Hey!” he called, waving and crossing over to where they were standing by the table.

“Jack!” Alex said happily, his eyes lighting up at the sight of his buddy. Bryan greeted Jack with a wave and a _hey!_ “Wanna do Jello shots with us?” Alex asked, grinning and motioning to the tray lined with Jello shots in front of them. It was obvious that those were Nano’s creations; Jack knew from past parties that the fella made some mean Jello shots.

Jack almost said yes, his eyes flicking to the tray… but then remembered about Zack. “We should find Zack first,” he said, reaching over to grab Alex’s arm.

“What happened to him?” Bryan gave Jack a quizzical look.

“Rian said he’s missing.” Jack peered back the way he’d come, tugging on Alex’s arm.

“Oh shit, he was our DD,” Alex said after a pause. “Guess we _should_ look for him, then.”

“Yeah, so let’s go,” Jack said without waiting to see if Bryan would follow him. He led Alex into the living room, opting to hold the other’s hand instead once they were amongst the throngs of partygoers in the dark space. He hoped that Zack was somewhere close by. Nobody had time for this shit.

“Why are you holding my hand?” Alex yelled over the noise as Jack guided him around the fellow guests, gripping his hat with his free hand so it wouldn’t get knocked off in the case someone bumped into him. Which, somebody did, causing him to shoulder-check the person to his left. However, there was no time for apologies as Jack mercilessly yanked him further into the room.

“‘Cause you’re gonna get lost!” Jack yelled back, tightening his hold on Alex’s hand. Losing Zack was enough; he didn’t need to lose Alex as well. He continued grasping Alex’s now-clammy hand until they were outside. Even then, he refused to let go.

“Dude, why the fuck are we outside?” Alex frowned as they stood on Flyzik’s lawn, the rumble of boosted bass steadily flowing from both inside the house and from the backyard.

“His car’s still here,” Jack said after a moment, spotting Zack’s car parked on the street. A small wave of relief filled him; he’d thought that Zack had gone home without them. Not that he didn’t trust Zack, but that guy liked to wander… and sometimes at the worst times.

“You can stop holding my hand now,” Alex said, but Jack didn’t hear him.

“I hope he’s in the backyard,” Jack said more to himself than Alex, dragging his friend with him as he now made his way to the backyard.

“Can you stop holding my hand?” Alex repeated, but Jack still didn’t listen. He tried to pull his hand away, but Jack unfortunately had an iron grip that wouldn’t loosen.

Since his mind was so focused on finding Zack, Jack wasn’t aware that Alex wanted him to let go. He continued forcing Alex to accompany him until they reached Flyzik’s backyard. Flyzik himself was there, observing a group of guys shouting by the pool.

“What’s going on?” Alex questioned, making Flyzik turn to them in surprise.

“You guys on a date or something?” Flyzik dropped his stare to Jack and Alex’s twined hands.

His words snapped Jack out of his haze. “No, we’re not!” Jack drew his hand away from Alex’s, briefly wondering why they’d been holding hands for that long.

“They’re all daring each other to skinny-dip in the pool,” Flyzik chuckled, gesturing with his chin to the commotion occurring a few feet away from them. “I think Vinny’s actually gonna do it.”

“Really?” Alex’s eyes widened. “Then we should watch.”

“Yeah, but where’s Zack?” Jack interjected, although his eyes betrayed him and he found himself staring at the crowd next to the pool as well.

“He’s not in my room?” Flyzik side-eyed Jack.

“What?”

“He asked if he could lay down for a bit so I told him to go to my room. You can check, but I’m pretty sure he’s still there.”

“Oh, then--” Jack cut off as Vinny raced toward them, yelling,

“No! I’m not doing it! I’m not!”

and taking off the fake flower crown that he’d been wearing. Before Jack could process what the fuck was going on, Vinny plunked the flower crown on his head… or at least tried to as he passed by. In actuality, he missed and the crown ended up dropping onto the grass. Jack eyed it for a moment and then Vinny, who’d disappeared from view. Shrugging, Alex retrieved the fallen crown and placed it on top of Jack’s head.

“Guess we can go back inside and check on Zack,” Alex said, clapping Jack’s shoulder.

Jack jumped slightly. “Yeah,” he managed, giving Flyzik a small wave in farewell before leading the way. He didn’t dare hold Alex’s hand this time because he wished not to join Vinny in being tonight’s laughing stock.

“See ya, man,” he heard Alex say from behind him as they escaped the backyard. Periodically checking that Alex was still following him, he re-entered the house and immediately hurried to Flyzik’s room. However, Alex stopped in the hallway to apologize to the couple that Jack had shoved past on his behalf.

Jack forgot about Alex for a minute as he slowly turned the doorknob to Flyzik’s room, desperately hoping that the door wasn’t locked. To his relief, it wasn’t. And so, he let himself in.

Zack was laying on his side on Flyzik’s bed, his back to the door. An anxious mound had formed in Jack’s chest after Rian had informed him that Zack was missing; that bundle of nerves finally melted away.

“Is he there?” Alex whispered, coming up behind Jack and peering over his shoulder.

“Yeah, hope he’s not dead or anything,” Jack whispered back, crossing over to the bed.

“Why would he be dead?”

“He’s not snoring.” Jack reached over to gently shake Zack’s shoulder. “Yes, he’s alive. Zacky, hey, Zacky… it’s time to wake up. Wake up, Zack.”

Zack stirred beneath him, letting out a muffled _mmm._

“Tired?” Alex asked as he approached them, gazing down at Zack’s sleepy figure.

 _Hngh,_ was Zack’s response.

Alex plopped down on the edge of the bed carefully so as not to disturb Zack. “Zack’s got the right idea.”

“There’s no room for both of you on the bed,” Jack stared at him for a long moment before sitting down next to him. Did he have to sit that close to Alex? No. But did he want to? Yes. He loved the feeling of their arms touching.

“You might as well join us then,” Alex said, playfully nudging Jack’s side.

“We’ll wake Zack up.” It was a weak comeback and Jack knew this; however, he was too busy losing himself in Alex’s dark eyes to give a shit.

“Yeah, good point.” Alex stood up. “Let’s leave him alone.” He began making his way over to the door. Jack followed him… with his eyes. “You coming?” he said over his shoulder when it was apparent that Jack hadn’t moved.

The dumb music was coursing through Jack’s body, making his heart race. “Y-Yeah,” he slowly rose, reaching up to touch Vinny’s abandoned flower crown. “Do I look good?” His question came out too brash, too loud.

Alex put a finger to his lips before pointing at Zack. “Yeah, you do. You look great.”

“Can I ask you something?” Jack willed himself to walk over to where Alex waited by the door. His face was burning; it was too hot in the house and he shouldn’t have drank so much. Alex’s presence wasn’t helping the situation, either.

“What is it?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“C-Can we… kiss?” The words flew out of Jack’s mouth. His breath hitched and he moved his gaze to Flyzik’s floor, his cheeks on fire.

 _Can we kiss?_ Zack had woken up after Jack had shaken him, but had pretended to continue being asleep so the other two would take the hint and leave him alone. Now he was really awake and would be lying if he said that he _didn’t_ want to see whether they’d actually kiss or not. He flopped over onto his other side so he was facing them and watched with half-closed eyes. Obviously, Alex was straight and Jack just liked to fuck around, so Zack knew that they wouldn’t legitimately kiss. Taking in their reactions would be fun, though.

Alex behaved precisely as Jack had predicted he would: raised voice, backing away, eyes widening with a “Dude, what the fuck?”

“It… It was a joke,” Jack stammered, taking a step back himself and holding his hands up. It wasn’t, but nobody took him seriously most of the time anyway so he could pass off anything as a _joke._ His eyes zeroed in on Alex’s face as he braced himself for the slap, the kick, the whatever Alex would give him.

Alex narrowed his eyes, assessing Jack’s large-eyed, cautious, surrendering pose. After a long pause filled with deliberation, he spoke, “Alright, let’s kiss.”

Zack couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Neither could Jack.

“I said it was a joke!” Jack burst out, his head suddenly spinning.

“No, it isn’t.” Alex shut the door that they had left ajar. “Kiss me and get it out of your system.”

“I-I can just kiss Zack instead,” Jack said quickly, jerking his thumb Zack’s way and taking a couple more steps backward. “Give him a little goodnight kiss or something.”

Zack wished that he was dead.

Alex put his hands on his hips and glowered at Jack. “Jack Barakat, own up to your fucking mistake and kiss me. Don’t be a coward.”

“But you won’t like it,” Jack whined, his eyes darting around the room. He didn’t know if he wanted to stay or leave or what he should look at.

“Yeah, but you’re sexually frustrated as shit right now and I’m not letting you jerk off with Zack in the room,” Alex replied, leaning against the door. Jack despised his pose: arms crossed over his chest with a smug smirk on his face.

Oh, how badly Zack wanted to die at this moment. Not only did the possibility that his two best friends were going to kiss exist, but one of them might also get off with him right there.

“I’m not sexually frustrated!” Jack yelled, although it was obvious to all three of them that he was. He balled his hands into fists, his face ablaze. “I… just don’t want you to regret anything.”

Alex left his position by the door and strode forward until he was inches away from Jack, who instantly froze up. “We’re at a party, we’re all drunk as fuck. There’s gonna be regrets anyway.”

Jack eyed the wall. “Yeah, but… I don’t wanna wreck our friendship or anything,” he said in a small voice.

“That’d be pretty fucking bad if our friendship gets wrecked over a little kiss.” Alex placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder reassuringly.

“What if we get caught?” Both Jack’s head and heart were exploding.

“Zack’s sleeping and doesn’t look like he’ll wake up for a while.”

To be honest, Zack would have given anything to be able to fall back asleep.

“But are you okay with it?” Jack forced himself to finally make eye contact with Alex, who didn’t _appear_ to be angry, but he couldn’t be 100% sure.

Alex shook his head. “I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t.”

“Okay, okay.” Jack took a deep breath to steady himself. “Um… close your eyes.”

Alex obeyed, his eyes fluttering shut. Jack just stared for a moment, internally panicking. Then he leaned over slowly, his lips lightly brushing Alex’s, his hair brushing against Alex’s hat. He pulled away as quickly as the kiss itself, overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol and his own feelings for the other boy.

“You call that a kiss?” Alex said a few seconds later, opening his eyes so he could shoot Jack a look of disapproval.

“It was a peck,” Jack said in barely above a whisper. “On the lips.”

“Where’s the actual one?” Alex’s voice took on a teasing tone. “Come on, Jack. Kiss me like you mean it. Kiss me like how you kiss random people at parties.”

Jack couldn’t bring himself to answer that. Instead, he grabbed the fake pilot hat that Alex was wearing and tossed it to the floor.

“Hey! What the fuck was that for?” Alex frowned, glancing at his hat.

“Isn’t that actually Vinny’s?” Jack asked absently to stall time. “Why do you still have it?”

“Yeah, ‘cause he didn’t want it back. Now it’s my drinking hat.” Alex shrugged, mimicking him by knocking Jack’s cap and flower crown to the floor. Nearly a minute passed before Jack registered what Alex had done.

“Hey,” he patted his head.

“Alright,” Alex smirked. “Now are we gonna kiss or what? Are you still sexually frustrated or did I kill the mood?”

“Do you still want me to kiss you?” Jack was aware that he was sweating rather profusely. Kissing Alex had been his dream since middle school, but now he was uncertain. He still _wanted_ to kiss Alex because he had a big ass crush on the guy… so why was he getting this… shy??  This wouldn’t even be his first kiss; he had plenty of experience, so there shouldn’t have been a reason as to why he was flustered.

Alex cocked an eyebrow, a mischievous grin forming on his face. “Are you gonna chicken out now?”

Jack was being ripped in half; one part of him hated backing down from a challenge while the other part continued hesitating because this was Alex he was going to kiss. A few feet away, Zack grasped the bedsheet in his fist, hoping that Jack would give up because “secondhand embarrassment” didn’t even describe how he felt anymore.

“H-How intense do you want this to get?” Jack had to ask because the heat that had been pooling in his face was now flowing throughout his entire body.

“Whatever you want,” Alex gave him a playful wink that went to his head-- both of them, actually. “I’m cool. Show me your full potential, if you want.”

“You’re high!”

“So are you.”

“You’re gonna wake up tomorrow morning and be mad and call me and be like ‘Why the _fuck_ did you kiss me yesterday??’!” Jack yearned to just smash Alex against the wall and make out with him, but at least his brain wasn’t complying with his dick’s desires yet.

“What happens in Flyzik’s room stays in his room,” Alex chuckled.

Zack didn’t care to stay in this room; he wanted to fucking leave, but also refused to disturb them by getting up and walking out. Thus, he stayed where he was, banking on the assumption that one of them would become embarrassed beyond belief and call it quits after two minutes.

“I thought you wanted a kiss, not some bdsm,” Jack couldn’t stop himself from feeling lust. He knew he shouldn’t be thirsty for his best friend, but…

“How is this bdsm?” Alex furrowed his brows. “We’re not even fucking.”

“Yeah, but,” Jack started, but trailed off, taking in Alex’s face, the other boy’s curious yet neutral expression.

Alex shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s fine. It’s not like we’re gonna do it or anything.”

To be honest, Jack wanted to, well, _do it_ , but he wouldn’t, not especially in his friend’s bedroom with another friend taking a nap. Besides, Alex would never agree to bone _him_ out of all people. 

Alex blinked. “Hey, you alright?” he asked, his voice now tinged with worry.

Jack couldn’t tell whether it was blood pounding in his ears or the music. “I’m gonna do it,” he said out loud. “Back out now if you don’t want it.”

Alex shot him a small, lop-sided smile. “Go ahead.”

Alex wanted him to be serious… so Jack was going to be serious. Trying his best to pretend that Alex was just some random hot guy that he’d gotten acquainted with at this party, he once again leaned forward, his hands slightly shaky. Alex knew what to do this time; he shut his eyes as Jack closed the gap between them. And this time, Jack didn’t pull away after a second.

Zack’s eyes widened as he witnessed the kiss. It was visibly awkward, but full of emotion at the same time, like a first kiss on the first date. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to him had it not been for the fact that it was Jack and Alex kissing, and that they weren’t even dating each other.

Jack saw stars, or rather firecracker sparks going astray, behind his closed eyelids when his lips met Alex’s. He lingered for a moment more before moving away, gazing at Alex with half-closed eyes. “How was it?” he managed, his mind replaying the event that had just occurred.

Alex placed a hand on Jack’s cheek. “Good,” he said softly, feeling as dazed as Jack looked.

Jack nuzzled Alex’s palm against his cheek, his mind suddenly hazy.

At 7 o’clock, he’d arrived here with his friends.

Around 7:15, he’d already gotten some alcohol in his system, courtesy of his own drink and sampling others’.

At approximately 7:30, somebody (most likely Vinny, although Jack wasn’t entirely certain. Stoner Vinny had been a running gag in their senior year whether Vinny was even a stoner or liked it or not.) had passed around a bong, and Jack hadn’t wanted to pass _that_ up. Alex had joined, too.

Sometime around 8, Rian had spilled the unfortunate news about Zack’s “disappearance”.

A couple minutes ago, Jack had kissed his longtime crush.

“Wanna kiss again?” Alex said, more alert now.

Jack snapped out of his trance. “Of course,” he replied, a bit hoarsely. Gone were his insecurities about kissing Alex; they had nothing to lose other than Flyzik’s permission to use his room. Their friendship wasn’t going to go to shit from a single kiss. Alex was right. And so, he wrapped his arms around Alex, drawing the other in close and kissing him yet again. He didn’t care anymore about what he was doing; he was old enough to make his own decisions, but was also still young and bound to make bad decisions, too. Fuck it all.

Alex froze for a brief second after Jack had pulled him into a hug before melting under the kiss. A moment later, his arms were around Jack.

Alex smelled like booze and the bass-boosted EDM playing from the living room didn’t set up an ideal romantic feel, but Jack gave no fucks. To him, this moment was a dream come true. Hoping that Alex was getting as into it as he was, he teased his friend’s lips with his tongue, asking for entry. Surprisingly, Alex opened his mouth for him immediately. Jack then slipped his tongue into Alex’s mouth as their gentle, almost-fumbling kiss rapidly changed into messy making out.

Now, Zack was known to dabble in various hobbies and right now provided the perfect opportunity to learn a new one. He fished out his phone from his pocket as stealthily as possible and began a new Google search:

_how to astral project_

Obviously, he wasn’t _that_ curious about astral projection; he just couldn’t stand seeing the scene unfolding several feet away from him any longer. If he astral projected, he would be able to escape the room without creating a disturbance. Thus, he clicked on the link that appeared first in his search results and started reading the website that it led to.

Jack unintentionally began driving Alex toward the wall as their kisses grew more sloppy and his head, dizzy. They pulled apart once Alex’s back made contact with the wall, both breathing heavily. Alex lowered his head as he tried to catch his breath; this enticed Jack, who had also become rather horny. He thread his fingers in Alex’s soft hair and yanked hard, forcing the other to look up at him with a startled yelp.

“You like that, don’t you, ya dirty slut?” he said in a low voice, sticking his face close to Alex’s. “Who’s your daddy?”

Alex made a face. “ _I’m_ a dirty slut? Who… who’s the one hard right now?”

Jack blushed, letting Alex go.

Alex shook his head. “And actually, _I’m_ the daddy. I’m older than you.”

Jack wished that he hadn’t said those. “Shut up, I-I panicked, okay?” he said hotly.

“Okay, you _dirty slut,_ ” Alex winked. “Wanna give daddy another kiss?”

Dying from the worst embarrassment ever, Jack hastily mashed his lips against Alex’s to _shut him the fuck up._ Apparently, Alex wasn’t drunk or high enough to appreciate the generic dirty talk he’d used on those he made out with in the past. He only had to hope that Alex was drunk or high enough to forget what he’d said the next day. Both parties knew that Alex wouldn’t let this _dirty slut/daddy_ incident go.

Jack’s embarrassment faded as Alex moaned against his lips. As if Jack’s pants didn’t already feel too tight, that sound made the tightness almost unbearable. He pressed himself closer to Alex in a poor attempt to alleviate the friction as he bit down on his best friend’s lower lip. A terrible decision, as Alex made a choked noise that worsened the situation.

Zack didn’t like where this was going.

Jack drew away, giving them time to catch their breaths. He exhaled in relief when he noticed that he hadn’t bitten hard enough to make Alex bleed. Nevertheless, Alex ran his tongue over the spot where Jack had bit down.

“Am… I bleeding..?” he asked between short gasps, staring at Jack with large eyes.

Jack shook his head. If he hadn’t been sexually frustrated before, he sure as fuck was _now._ He briefly debated on excusing himself to go jerk off in Flyzik’s bathroom, but decided against it, choosing instead to pull Alex’s hair again.

Alex cried out as Jack dipped his head to suck on the older boy’s neck. The thought of having to explain a sudden hickey on Alex’s neck didn’t cross Jack’s mind. His brain was filled with _other_ thoughts, such as he was aroused, he couldn’t fuck up, and _boy,_ was Alex hot all sweaty like this.

“Jack…” Alex breathed after a few moments had passed.

Jack pulled away. “Do you want me to stop?” he murmured, his eyes still focused on Alex’s neck. However, he was forced to avert his gaze when Alex grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked. He whined as Alex said, slowly,

“No… but you look like you need to deal with the problem in your pants.”

Jack wanted to wrench himself free, but Alex kept him in place. He couldn’t do anything other than stare into Alex’s calm eyes as heat continued pulsing through his body. “There’s no problem in my pants! It’s just a weird fold, okay?”

Alex raised an eyebrow skeptically. “You sure? You don’t want daddy to help you out here?”

From out in the hallway, Rian carefully shut the door. He’d grown worried because Zack was still awol, and he’d lost both Alex and Jack, too. Having been accompanied by Cass, he’d searched all the main areas in the house until he’d run into Flyzik, who had told him that all three of them should be in his bedroom. Thus, he had led Cass to Flyzik’s room and had lightly tapped on the door… but had received no response. He’d then opened the door slightly and wished that he hadn’t.

He shook his head at Cass and turned to leave, only to be met with Flyzik.

“Yo,” Flyzik waved. “They still in there?”

“Yeah, they’re all taking a nap,” Rian lied, because he wasn’t about to tell Flyzik that Jack and Alex were… making out… with poor Zack in the room… “Let’s not bother them,” he added quickly, putting his hands on Flyzik’s shoulders and spinning him around, away from the door. Cass followed wordlessly (she too had glimpsed the sight in the room and had been rendered speechless) as Rian ushered Flyzik back into the crowded living room.

To be honest, Jack would have loved for Alex to “help him out”, but believed, somehow in his heated state, that would be taking things too far. Sure, a kiss wouldn’t ruin their friendship, but he knew that getting Alex to touch his dick definitely would. “Can you just kiss me?” he asked desperately, his eyes wildly searching Alex’s.

“Will kissing even help that fold in your pants? It doesn’t look very comfortable,” Alex noted, letting go of Jack’s hair. “I can look away if you need to deal with it.”

Enough was enough. It was time for Zack to take action. Being a quiet, reserved guy, his friends tended to talk over him… or assumed that he was cool with everything. But Zack was not okay with this. For both his sake and their sakes, he was going to end this.

“No! It’s… It’s not… it…” Jack found himself unable to form a coherent sentence, his brain overrun by desire. “It… It was a mistake!”

Zack gently set his phone aside and gradually inched closer to the edge of the bed. Bracing himself, he then let himself roll over the edge.

“Do you just want me to--” Alex cut off as a dull _thud_ sounded from the other side of the room. He swiftly turned his head to the source of the noise. Forgetting about his boner for a moment, Jack copied him.

Zack had fallen out of the bed.

Whatever thoughts he’d had about “assisting” Jack escaped Alex’s head; he hurried over to Zack’s side, Jack tailing behind. Crouching beside Zack, he placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Zack, you alright?”

Feigning innocence, Zack raised his head up from the floor. “What happened?”

***

Jack couldn’t handle it anymore. Two days had passed since the party and Alex wasn’t really talking to him. The only message from him during this timespan was a picture of the hickey that Jack had given him. Aside from that, there had been nothing. Alex hadn’t responded back to his texts and had ignored his calls. Jack had fucked up. What was Alex mad at him about? The kiss? Making out? Not being called “daddy”? Him ditching to get off in Flyzik’s bathroom instead of helping Zack? Whatever the reason was, Jack needed to fix this. He couldn’t live without Alex. Pushing down the hurt, he sent a new message in the group chat, hoping that Alex would acknowledge it:

_Hey guys wanna go to the carnival tomorrow?_


	2. Chapter 2

Alex didn’t know why he’d done that. Why did he:

Goad Jack into kissing him?

Want a kiss from Jack so badly to begin with?

Encourage Jack to make out with him?

Consider touching Jack’s dick?

Let Jack give him a hickey?

Not permit Zack to leave?

Take that daddy joke too far?

For the past two days, there had been a lot of _why_ s and _Jack_ in his mind. Speaking of Jack, he’d been trying to avoid the guy since they’d left the party; shame had started eating away at him throughout the remainder of the night after he’d crashed from his high and sobered up. He’d decided to apologize to Jack in a couple more days’ time aka once the memories of those terrible events had grown more stale for both of them. He highly doubted that Jack would take his apology seriously right now.

Closing his eyes, he was about to succumb to a nap when his phone buzzed from beside him, immediately chasing away the grogginess. Anxiety clutched his heart, making his eyes snap back open.

It was probably Jack… again.

Jack had sent him 10 messages over the last two days, alternating between _Hey_ and _Alex_ until he’d given up. Then, he'd proceeded to calling, stopping after the fifth call went to voicemail. Alex still felt guilty for ignoring him, so he reminded himself for the _nth_ time that Jack would obviously follow-up that innocent _Hey_ with something along the lines of _How u feeling daddy?_ or worse: _Why did u want to touch my dick?_

Ready to merely glance at the text and swipe away the notification, Alex reached over to grab his phone. Relief overtook the dread after he’d peeked at his screen:

_Hey guys wanna go to the carnival tomorrow?_

Jack Barakat, Rian Dawson.. (10)

 

It was just the group chat, not Jack. Guessing that it was Vinny who sent the message (because he was usually the one with the most time on his hands), Alex opened the chat… only for the anxiety to return when he noticed that it was actually _Jack_ who had thrown out the invite. His stress level shot through the roof when he saw that Zack, Rian, and Vinny had agreed to go. Rian and Vinny he didn’t care about… but Zack? Zack, whom he had caught watching him and Jack kiss??

Alex was going to turn Jack down. That was the most obvious choice. He typed _No, sorry_ and was about to hit send when his fingers moved from hovering over the send button to the backspace key. Before he could stop and think, he found himself deleting that _No, sorry_ and replacing it with _Ok_. He didn’t want to go, but… he had to apologize to Jack someday… and clear things up with Zack, too.

***

_Ok_

It wasn’t the answer that Jack had been expecting, but at least it was an answer. A couple minutes after that message had come in, another one from Alex popped up on the screen:

_I can pick you guys up. What time?_

Now, _this_ was a better response. Hardly able to contain his joy, Jack typed, with trembling fingers:

_7 sounds good?_

He then flung his phone aside and plopped down on his bed, his heart fluttering. Things were going to be okay. Alex wasn’t _that_ mad at him. Jack couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

***

_Here_

At Alex’s text, Jack hurried out of his house. Adjusting his cap, he slid into the crowded backseat of Alex’s car, squeezing in beside Vinny.

“Hey,” Alex said without looking at him.

“Hi,” he said, a bit nervously as Alex pulled away from the curb.

“Hey, Jack,” Rian greeted him from where he was sitting shotgun, glancing at him through the side mirror. Zack gave him a friendly wave from Vinny’s other side. Vinny put his arm around Jack’s shoulders before announcing,

“Hey, everyone! Have you noticed that… Alex has a hickey??”

Jack died inside, his heart stopping for a second. He didn’t have to look at Alex to know that the other boy died inside too. Zack and Rian died inside for both of them, the secondhand embarrassment from the party returning.

Jack opened his mouth to blurt out some sad lie, but Alex beat him to it:

“Shut up, Vinny, it was probably you.”

“What?” Vinny removed his arm from Jack’s shoulders. “How? I don’t remember kissing you.”

“Well, you were drunk and high as hell, weren’t you?” Alex said smoothly, making eye contact with Jack in the rearview mirror. “You probably don’t remember. Or maybe it wasn’t you,” he went on, shrugging. “I don’t remember who kissed me.”

Jack silently breathed a sigh of relief, shooting a quick text to Alex: _Thanks_ . Zack too inaudibly sighed in relief. Rian just shook his head. However, they were unable to relax as Vinny released _another_ horrible question:

“Hey, where _were_ you guys for most of the night?”

Luckily for Jack, Rian saved him this time: “They were all taking a nap in Flyzik’s room. I was with Cass most of the time.”

Realizing that his friends would grow suspicious if he stayed quiet for any longer (and also because he wanted to end Vinny’s question period), Jack piped up, “Alright, Vinny, let’s hear what _you_ did that night. Why didn’t you go fucking skinny-dipping?”

As Vinny launched into his story, Jack felt the atmosphere in the car change, the tension ebbing away. He leaned against the window as Vinny babbled about being dared to skinny-dip in Flyzik’s pool and how somebody randomly gave him a flower crown. Fortunately for him and Alex, Vinny decided to keep talking until they reached their destination.

“Okay, I think I boxed this other person in, but good enough,” Alex interrupted Vinny, shutting the engine off. “Let’s go.”

Jack was out of the car instantly with Vinny close behind. He heard Rian say, “You’re gonna get your door dinged.” as their oft-more serious friend joined them outside.

“Whatever,” was Alex’s reply as he locked the car. And then they all set off toward the fairgrounds.

Naturally, Vinny bounced on ahead. Normally, Jack would also be leading the group, but tonight, he was being plagued by nervousness and thus, unable to fully be his usual energetic self. Uncharacteristically, he brought up the rear with Zack, stealing glances at the back of Alex’s head and wondering if he’d be given an opportunity to take Alex aside.

“Can we eat first?” Vinny asked as they lined up to buy tickets.

“You didn’t eat dinner?” Rian narrowed his eyes.

“Nah, man, I wanted to eat here,” Vinny replied.

“Food’s expensive here,” Alex informed him. “Bad choice, Vinny, bad choice.”

Jack stared as Rian and Alex began grilling Vinny on his poor decision, his eyes drawn to the fading hickey on Alex’s neck. Why didn’t Alex cover it up? Jack hoped that they wouldn’t run into any of their former classmates here because they were obviously going to falsely assume that Alex and Lisa had some shit going on, and Jack wished not to see Lisa get thrown under the bus like this.

“You okay?” Zack’s concerned voice shook Jack out of his reverie.

“Yeah… just watching Vinny get owned ‘cause he deserves it,” Jack said in the most lighthearted tone he could muster.

“Hey,” Vinny snapped, although his eyes remained friendly. 

“You’re next,” Rian elbowed Vinny.

“Yeah, pay attention,” Alex chided jokingly. He then blinked. “Is there something on my face?” he said to Jack, who abruptly shifted his gaze to Vinny’s cap.

“I think he was zoning out,” Zack said quickly.

Alex smirked. “Come on, Jack, you should pay attention, too.”

“It’s hard to pay attention when Vinny’s being a dumbass,” Jack said, suddenly glad that Vinny had decided to join them.

Vinny shot him the finger over his shoulder as he paid for his tickets.

Several minutes later, the five of them found themselves in the food trucks area. Now, Jack wasn’t exactly super hungry… or at least, not for food. The only thing he was yearning for was Alex forgiving him, but he felt that it was still too early to pull Alex away for a private chat. He would have to make do with watching Vinny go broke for now.

“You gonna buy for all of us too?” he asked Vinny, forcing himself to sound as close to his typical self as possible, although his heart was heavy with unease.

Vinny shook his head. “No, fuck that. You guys wouldn’t leave me alone earlier so you can get your own food.” And with that, he left them.

“Go suck a dick, Vinny!” Jack called after him, trying to ignore the glares that parents passing by threw him.

“I’m gonna go look for a table,” Rian began backing away. “And Zack,” he said a second later, because Zack was nowhere to be seen, not that Jack was surprised. Rian then took off, leaving Jack with only Alex.

“You wanna get something to eat?” Alex’s question made Jack realize that they were alone.

“Yeah?” Jack gazed around at the dozens of people milling about nearby, anxiety rising in his chest. This wasn’t supposed to happen yet!

“Come on, let’s go buy something. What do you want?”

“Uhh…” Jack forced himself to make eye contact with Alex. “I don’t know. Surprise me?” he added quickly after seeing Alex frown. “I eat anything.”

“I _know_ that,” the other boy said with a small chuckle. “Let’s go.”

Jack followed Alex absently, his mind busy with rehearsing an apology. Should he be upfront? Lead into it casually? He rapidly became preoccupied with his options and internal monologue, losing awareness of his surroundings until he felt a nudge to his arm. He blinked, turning his head to the side… and wound up staring dead-on into Alex’s eyes.

“I already ordered for you,” the older boy gave him a gentle shove. “Get out of the line.” 

“Oh.” Jack sidestepped, unable to move his focus from Alex’s face.

“You okay, man?” Alex asked worriedly. “You’re, like, spacing out a lot.”

“I’m high,” Jack blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

Alex furrowed his brows.

“No, I’m just kidding,” Jack shook his head. He couldn’t handle the apprehension anymore. “Can we… talk sometime?”

“Yeah.. what’s up?” Alex crossed his arms over his chest.

“I mean, in private,” Jack lowered his voice, eyeing the six people lined up next to them.

“Sure?” Alex raised a brow. “Why-”

“Hey, guys,” Rian interrupted, approaching them with Zack in tow. Vinny wasn’t with them; Jack wondered if he was stuffing his face somewhere else.

“Hey!” Alex waved in greeting.

Jack felt a flash of annoyance. Why couldn’t Zack and Rian have come _later?_ “You guys aren’t eating anything?” he questioned, trying to squish down the irritation. 

“Nah, we’re not that hungry,” Rian replied, placing an arm around Zack’s shoulders. “We’re not gonna be like Vinny. What are _you_ guys doing?”

“Getting food,” Alex motioned to the food truck beside them.

“So, you guys aren’t any better than Vinny,” Rian teased.

Jack looked up at the night sky. “Where _is_ Vinny? Did you guys lose him?”

“Yeah, but he’ll probably text us if he’s actually lost,” Rian shrugged.

“Are you sure he’s smart enough to do that?” The sprinkles of stars dotting the dark expanse reminded Jack of the time where he and Alex had held hands and stared at the sky while sitting on top of his car. He suddenly wished that he could relive that night.

“Here,” Alex’s voice brought Jack back to reality.

Jack accepted Alex’s offering, his eyes widening. “Corndog?”

“You said to make it a surprise,” Alex raised his own corndog. “And I don’t have that much money to spare like Vinny.”

Realization hit Jack. “W-Why did you buy for me?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Alex said softly.

Jack’s heart skipped a beat as a terrible, unrealistic idea sprung up in his head: _What if Alex liked him back?_ Feeling a stupid blush heat up his face and not wanting Rian or Alex to point it out, he said, faking cheeriness, “Let’s go check out some of the booths!” He then led the way, not even caring at the moment whether his friends were following or not. He just needed to get away and distract himself.

He ate his corndog in silence, scanning his surroundings as his friends tailed along behind, Rian and Alex chatting about… something school-related, Jack assumed. They were nerds who had nothing better to talk about. He began to panic as he passed several vendors that didn’t catch his interest; he hoped that the others wouldn’t think that he was leading them nowhere. Unfortunately, Alex confirmed his fear:

“Yo, Jack! Where are we going?”

Jack frantically surveyed the booths close by, ready to pick one at random… when his eyes settled on _it._ The big, fluffy, pastel-rainbow stuffed llama sitting on the shelf of a game booth. “Look at that!” he called, pointing to the llama, relief chasing away the distress.

“That a llama?” Rian inquired, putting his hands on his hips and tipping his head to one side.

“Yeah, and I want it.” And this time, Jack led his friends with an actual purpose. “I don’t care if I waste all my tickets,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m gonna get it.”

Alex slowed down as they neared the booth, reaching over to tug on Zack’s sleeve. The reserved teen turned to him in confusion. “Let’s talk,” he said, gesturing for Zack to come along with him. He guided Zack toward a garbage can several feet away from where Rian and Jack were. Alex didn’t want to do this, but he had to for Zack’s sake. Shoving his hands in his pockets and moving his gaze to the ground, he spoke:

“Uh… how much did you see..?”

“What?”

“Of… that other night? You know… Flyzik’s aftergrad?” As soon as those words left Alex’s mouth, the memories flooded him. He started seeing Jack’s face inches away from his, dark eyes filled with desire. Jack’s lips against his, the smell of alcohol wafting in the air as Jack pushed his tongue into Alex’s mouth. Tongues tangling as something hard rubbed his thigh. A bite to his lip, which had hurt but had also felt kind of nice at the same time. Jack’s hand roughly yanking his hair. _You like that, don’t you, ya dirty slut?_ Jack had said, his voice having been made husky by lust. _Who’s your daddy?_

“Uhh…” Zack wasn’t sure what to say.

“I know you saw,” Alex said quietly, pushing away those memories to no avail. Something about those thoughts were stirring up weird feelings within him. He couldn’t classify these _feelings_ as good or bad.

“Umm..”

“Sorry you had to see that,” Alex said finally, facing away.

“It’s fine. We all get drunk sometimes and shit happens,” Zack said after a moment’s hesitation. Well, _he_ had never made out with any friends while under the influence, but what else was there for him to say? “I actually didn’t see much,” he lied. “I was asleep for a while.”

“I just saw when you were on your phone,” Alex said, inching away. “So… we good, then?”

“Yup,” Zack chuckled, although he would never be able to unsee what he had witnessed at that party.

Meanwhile, Jack hadn’t been having the best of luck with this dumb fucking knock-over-the-bottles game. Either the game was rigged or his aim was worse than Vinny’s. A pang of disappointment hit him when he realized that he had used up all his tickets. “Rian,” he whined, hoping that Rian was already done with his shit and would buy him more tickets without initiating a fight first.

Rian sighed. “Move over, Jack.”

“I ran out of tickets,” Jack insisted as Rian lightly pushed him aside.

“I _know._ But I’m not buying you more,” Rian told him.

Jack eyed the smiling llama overhead in desperation. “Then, what do I do?”

“Just watch, I guess.”

And so, Jack watched, pouting. He was aware that he was being immature as fuck right now, but he really wanted that llama. He silently jinxed Rian as his friend hurled the ball… and knocked down all the bottles in one shot. His jaw dropped when he heard Rian say:

“I’ll take that rainbow llama, thanks.”

Jack’s hands trembled as Rian passed the llama plushie to him. “Here you go.”

“Rian,” he said, and because no other words would leave his mouth, enveloped Rian in a huge hug, squishing the llama between them. “Thanks, man!”

“It’s no problem,” Rian fought the urge to roll his eyes as the llama pressed into his chest.

Elated, Jack pulled away and spun in a circle with his new… “child”. “Alex!” he called, whipping around expectantly to where he’d last seen the other. “Look what Rian…” he trailed off as he was met with the stare of a random lady in the line. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed two familiar figures standing by a garbage can a few feet away.

“Wonder what they’re talking about?” Rian sidled up next to him.

Jack didn’t answer, only holding the llama tighter as Alex and Zack rejoined them a couple of minutes later.

Zack reached over to stroke the llama’s head. “It’s kinda cute.”

“Hey! You won it!” Alex’s eyes lit up at the sight of Jack’s prize.

“Actually, _I_ won it,” Rian said quickly. “His arm is worse than Vinny’s.”

“I’m gonna call him… François,” Jack said, studying the llama’s smiling face. “He-”

“ _There_ you guys are!” Vinny interrupted, hurrying over. “Playing ring toss or something?”

Alex prodded Jack’s arm. “Let’s go talk.”

Jack’s gaze snapped up from François to Alex. “Right now?”

“Yeah. We’ll be back,” Alex said to the rest of their friends before breaking away.

Jack followed him, tucking François under his arm and trying to process what was going on as people brushed past.

“You wanna talk in the ferris wheel?” Alex abruptly stopped walking, making Jack bump into him.

“Uh,” Jack stared up at the ferris wheel looming before them, lit up for nighttime. “I guess? Wait!” He was then struck with a reminder. “I don’t have anymore tickets.”

Alex eyed François. “We can use mine, then.”

“You sure?” Jack moved his focus back to Alex.

“Yeah. Come on,” Alex began walking again.

They didn’t talk anymore until they were in one of the ferris wheel cars. Jack spoke first because he couldn’t deal with the tension anymore, his voice coming out a bit shaky: “Hey, Alex? I’m sorry.”

Alex rested his gaze on Jack. “Actually, I’m sorry, too.”

“For what?” Jack leaned back, finally able to fully relax for the first time that night, the unease that had been sitting in his heart for the past two days dissolving.

“Shouldn’t have encouraged you to… kiss me like that.” Alex looked away. “That’s why I bought you that corndog. I felt bad.”

Jack joined him in observing the scenery outside, the bright fairgrounds and its attendees moving about below, the twinkling lights of the skyscrapers in the distance. “But you liked that, didn’t you… _daddy_?” Now that he was freed from apprehension, he couldn’t help himself.

“Okay, Jack, serious question for you,” Alex’s voice took on a teasing tone as well.

“Yeah?” Jack glanced at his friend, at the mischievous smirk on Alex’s face, and prepared himself for a witty comeback.

“Do you have a daddy kink?”

“No!” Jack shook his head furiously. “Unless… you liked it… you _dirty slut_?” he added.

“ _You’re_ the dirty slut,” Alex leaned over to punch Jack’s arm playfully.

Jack faked being hurt, rubbing his arm and frowning. “No, _you_ are. You wanted to touch my dick.”

Awkward silence immediately filled the car; Jack now wished that he’d kept his mouth shut. Just as he was about to apologize, Alex beat him to it, dropping his gaze and talking first:

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. That kind of crossed the line, didn’t it?” 

“I don’t mind,” Jack couldn’t stop himself from saying.

Alex shot him a strange look.

“You know I… _like_ you… right?” The first time he’d said this, Jack had been nervous as hell. He’d broken out in a sweat; his hands had been clammy and his shirt had stuck to his back. He hadn’t been able to speak any louder than a murmur. Now, he was fine aside from a small flutter in his chest. “I tried to tell you this a few months ago, but you were high and-”

“I know,” Alex interjected. “I already know. I wasn’t _that_ high.”

Jack did a double-take.

“Ride’s over,” Alex peered outside. “Wanna keep talking in my car or something?”

“Yeah,” Jack hadn’t realized that they were back on the ground. Scooping François into his arms, he followed Alex outside.

***

“You guys just gonna stand there?” Vinny asked incredulously.

“I guess,” Rian shrugged. “We shouldn’t all get seperated.”

“Will you guys still be there if I go play some games and come back?”

“Probably.”

***

Jack couldn’t believe what was happening as he and Alex left the fairgrounds. Feeling as though he was in a dream, he clutched François to his chest as they made their way over to Alex’s car.

“Where do you wanna go?” Alex looked over at him.

“Anywhere,” Jack replied, because that was the truth. As long as Alex was with him, he really didn’t care where they went.

“My house?”

“Sure.” Jack felt light from head to toe as he climbed into Alex’s car, seating François in the back.

“You really like that llama, hey?” Alex peeked at François in the rearview mirror.

“He’s my baby.”

“I can see that,” Alex chuckled as he pulled out of the parking stall.

The first few minutes of the drive remained silent. Jack wasn’t sure what to say as he watched the scenery outside blur past. Alex took it upon himself to break the stillness:

“So..”

“Can we go back to that night?” Jack suddenly had an idea. He just hoped that Alex wouldn’t get all smartass-y on him.

“What night?”

“You know… _that_ night.”

“Are you talking about two days ago or..?”

Jack shook his head. “No, that night a few months ago where we sat on my car and looked at the sky and all that stuff.”

“I don’t have weed.”

“No, no, I mean,” Jack moved his stare from the passing scenery to his shoes. “What I said. That thing. You know?”

“I actually don’t,” Alex said, puzzled.

“Can we just pretend that I never said that I liked you?” Jack blurted out. “Can we start over, like, right now?” He eyed Alex skittishly as he waited for the other’s response.

Alex didn’t answer right away, only pinching his brows as they waited at a stoplight. Jack’s heart dropped. Did he fuck up… _again_?

When the light turned green, Alex finally replied, “So… you want to confess to me again?”

Jack’s cheeks flushed. “Yeah, but can you pretend to be surprised or something?”

Alex laughed. “Okay. I’ll pull over here and you can tell me. I’ll pretend I don’t know shit.”

However, as Alex drove up to the curb, Jack started panicking, feeling exactly like how he’d felt the first time he’d confessed to Alex. Face burning and heart pounding with an unwanted sweat breaking out, he leaned back in the seat as Alex parked the car. Closing his eyes because he didn’t want to see Alex’s reaction, he said, as fast as possible, “Alex Gaskarth, I like you, okay?” while expecting an _I love you too… thanks for being my best friend_ once again in response. His eyes shot open when he heard Alex say:

“Actually, Jack, I kinda like you, too.”

He swivelled around to face Alex, unable to stop himself from gawking.

“No, I’m not joking this time,” Alex added quickly, raising his hands.

Jack’s brain was malfunctioning. He couldn’t believe, couldn’t process this. “I thought you liked Lisa?” he managed.

“Yeah, I like her too. I like you guys in different ways,” Alex smiled albeit knowing that Jack probably couldn’t see it well in the dark.

“I-I thought you were straight!”

“That’s what I thought, too. Guess I couldn’t resist the Jack Barakat charm,” Alex said slyly.

“How long have you liked me for??” Memories flashed through Jack’s mind: the ferris wheel convo, the kiss, the first confession, fucking around in the art room…

Alex paused for a couple of seconds before speaking, “Would it be bad if I said that I found that kiss hot and you looked hot that night?”

Jack couldn’t find his voice, his eyes wildly searching Alex’s face, which was dimly-lit by the streetlight overhead.

“Hey, Jack, come here,” Alex said in a softer voice, motioning with his finger.

Jack absently leaned over.

“It’s not just the kiss,” Alex said gently. “I’m pretty sure I kinda liked you before… like back in junior year or something… but I was in denial, I guess.”

Jack didn’t know what to do.

Alex shrugged. “Shit happens. Guess now you know.”

“What are we?” Jack croaked out. His heart was near beating out of control, his shirt beginning to cling to his body.

Alex blinked. “What?”

“I don’t know… are we friends or… what are we now?” Jack was losing himself in Alex’s eyes.

“Friends? We can just stay like this, I don’t really care.” Alex shrugged again.

“Can we date?” The question flew out of Jack’s mouth, his eyes widening at the same time. Instantly ashamed, he drew back, his eyes flicking to Alex’s dashboard instead. “Actually, we don’t have to, we can just keep being friends, okay?” he rambled.

“We can _try,_ ” Alex said without missing a beat. “I don’t know if us dating would work, but we can try.”

“But you’re… straight… people are gonna think… they…” Jack trailed off.

“Look at me, Jack,” Alex said softly.

Jack didn’t want to, but he did.

“We can find a way to make it work,” Alex reached over to place his hand on top of Jack’s.

Jack glanced down at their hands, very aware of how Alex’s hand was warm on top of his.

“You can keep calling me daddy if you want,” Alex teased. “But you can… also call me boyfriend now, too.”

Jack gaped at him, unable to speak.

“Sorry, that was really cheesy,” Alex said hastily. “But yeah. If you wanna date, let’s do it.”

Jack’s body was buzzing with an onslaught of mixed emotions. Shock, happiness, nervousness… “Alex,” was the only thing he could force out of his mouth.

Alex gave Jack’s hand a squeeze. “Okay, I’m not gonna be as good as you are with this kind of stuff, but…” he ended his words with a peck to Jack’s lips.

Jack hadn’t been expecting that. A kiss??? From Alex??? Flustered, he turned away.

“Come back here, I didn’t finish.”

With his face feeling hotter than the time he tried to cook something and set the stove on fire, Jack faced Alex again, his hands lightly quivering. He’d daydreamed about this kind of moment since middle school, but now that it was actually occurring, Jack was at a loss for words… and his body didn’t seem to know what to do, either.

“Close your eyes,” Alex instructed, although his voice was kind.

Jack obeyed, letting his eyelids flutter shut. A moment later, Alex was kissing him, one hand cradling his cheek. There was no smell of booze this time, no bass-boosted music, no Mickey Mouse plushies scrutinizing them from shelves, nobody else in the car with them (except François, but he could keep a secret). It was only the two of them with the radio playing quietly in the background. Even though no words were exchanged, it was unanimous that both of them wouldn’t want it any other way.

***

“Vinny’s not answering his phone,” Rian grumbled, pocketing his phone in frustration. “Any luck with Alex or Jack?” 

“Oh. Here’s one from Jack.” Zack showed Rian his own phone.

Rian squinted at the message on the screen:

_Were going to alex’s house_

“How?” Rian made a face.

“They probably drove there,” Zack yawned.

A few seconds later, realization hit Rian. “Are you kidding me? Did they just fucking take the car?”

Zack’s eyes widened at this information. “Shit.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? What the fuck are _we_ supposed to do now?” Rian spat, glaring in the direction of the entrance. “Are they dumbasses?”

“Uh, yeah,” Zack let his gaze follow Rian’s, shifting the prizes that he’d won at various game booths in his arms.

“Do you have enough for a cab?” Rian closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

“Probably.” Zack didn’t know for certain how much money he had in his wallet, but he wasn’t about to set his loot down to check.

“Okay, I’m gonna call a cab,” Rian pulled out his phone.

***

They didn’t wind up going to Alex’s house. Instead, Alex drove them to the nearest McDonald’s, holding hands with Jack the entire way there. Jack recovered from his shock halfway through the ride; he tightened his hold on Alex’s hand as an indication of this. Once they’d arrived, they strolled into the restaurant with their hands still entwined, both feeling somewhat shy. One of the front-end employees narrowed his eyes at them, not because they were two guys holding hands, but because he recognized Jack as that high fucker who had shouted an order of six McChickens, three Bacon Chicken snack wraps, one Big Mac, large fries, and four waters several months prior. Luckily for him, their order was reasonable this time.

They sat at a table in the corner by a window and shared fries and a Coke as they began chatting about mundane topics. Jack was content to let Alex do most of the talking, preferring to watch his new boyfriend’s every movement and listen to his beautiful voice as he periodically fed Alex fries. Partway through their… snack… Jack remembered something that he’d been wanting to obtain an answer to. He waited until Alex finished babbling about picking classes before he spoke:

“Hey… were you mad at me earlier?”

“No?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“Then, why did you ignore me until today?”

“I ignored you?” Alex tipped his head to one side.

“Yeah, since we got back from Flyzik’s,” Jack stirred a fry in ketchup, a memory of Zack eating plain ketchup and nothing else at the cafeteria one time briefly flickering in his mind as he did so. “You kept ignoring my messages and calls.”

“Oh. Yeah… sorry about that,” Alex said awkwardly. “I wasn’t mad at you. I just felt really embarrassed and thought you’d get mad at _me_ so… yeah. Kind of avoided you. Sorry.”

“Wow, Alex, you’re so pathetic,” Jack said half-heartedly with a snicker. A larger question surfaced in his mind then: “Wait… if you liked me this whole time… then why did you pretend not to when I… told you the first time? You said you weren’t _that_ high.”

“I wasn’t. I just didn’t wanna embarrass _you_ ‘cause I thought _you_ were really high and didn’t know what the fuck you were saying.”

“I wasn’t _that_ high. You and Zack used up most of the weed,” Jack offered Alex a fry, thoroughly coated in ketchup. “I-” He was interrupted by his phone vibrating in his pocket. Frowning, he drew out his phone to check who was messaging him. It was Rian and he had sent an angry text: _Hey fuck you guys. Why did you take the car? Now Zack & I have to cab home. Give us a warning next time. _ Jack couldn’t help but smile and reply with: _;) <3 _.

***

Vinny hurried over to where Rian and Zack had mentioned they’d be, aka next to the knock-over-the-bottles booth, his arms stuffed with prizes. For some reason, Vinny had been experiencing incredible luck tonight, winning at nearly every game booth he’d visited. He couldn’t wait to brag about his accomplishments to his friends in revenge for them poking fun at him earlier. “Hey, guys!” he called. “Look what I…” he snapped his mouth shut when he noticed that nobody was waiting for him. Juggling his prizes (unsuccessfully, as the large pastel-rainbow llama plush dropped to the ground) into one arm, he fished out his phone from his pocket. Three missed calls and seven text message notifications greeted him.

***

Jack couldn’t fall asleep later that night. His brain wouldn’t stop replaying a mental movie highlighting the events from earlier. Leaving the house believing that the evening would flop, Alex buying him a corndog, failing at that shitty-ass game, Rian winning him François, patching things up with Alex in the ferris wheel, Alex turning from his best friend to his boyfriend in the car, the kiss, the first date, Alex giving him a goodbye peck on the cheek before parting ways, a _sweet dreams_ message… Smiling to himself, Jack wrapped an arm around François as he continued reminiscing. Even though he was aware that it was obviously still too early to be having these sorts of thoughts, he didn’t care: he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Alex.

***

Jack was having the best summer ever. He loved his wonderful boyfriend and all the adventures they partook in. From mellow cafe dates to go-kart racing and even taking random buses once to get off at unfamiliar stops, Jack enjoyed it all. He couldn’t pick a favourite date; he liked them all equally.

Rian and Cass became official that summer too. Although Jack and Alex never mentioned their new relationship, Rian knew. Jack’s _;) <3 _message that he’d sent the night they’d attended the fair had sparked the initial suspicion. This inkling was confirmed the next time Rian had met up with Jack, as the fella had sparkles in his eyes and a moony expression had formed on his face the moment Alex had been brought up in their conversation.

Normally, Rian liked to stay in his lane and mind his own business, but a time came that summer where he felt like testing the waters. This manifested as him inviting the other two lovers on an incognito double-date with Cass and him. By “incognito”, he’d invited Vinny and Zack as well to trick Alex and Jack into thinking that it was a group activity. Unfortunately, Vinny bailed at the last moment, leaving Zack to painfully fifth-wheel.

To Zack, the only fun part about this incognito-date-gone-wrong was observing Jack and Alex. They were mum about their relationship, but they sure weren’t subtle, either. Or at least Jack wasn’t, whatwith holding Alex’s hand under the table and resting his head on the older boy’s shoulder. Within 10 minutes of arriving at this diner, Zack had already figured out that they were dating. Toying with his napkin, he decided that it was time to leave. However, he changed his mind about ditching when Rian said the words that he’d been hoping to hear since they’d sat down at this booth:

“Hey… you guys dating or something? Not gonna judge, but… just curious.”

Zack couldn’t lie: seeing Alex and Jack exchange panicked glances with each other was somewhat amusing.

“Yeah, I was wondering, too,” Cass said, studying them with a slight inclination of her head.

“Jack’s just being silly,” Alex said, patting Jack’s head.

“Yeah,” Jack chimed in, peering up at Alex with such a soft look in his eyes that even Zack, who was generally not that observant, noticed this.

Anyway, this wasn’t the answer that Zack had been expecting. Excusing himself under the guise of _My brother’s car broke down and I have to go pick him up_ , he slipped past Rian and Cass and exited the diner. Once outside, he walked a few steps away from the establishment and its retro-style neon signs and tilted his head back to study the night sky. A minute later, he texted his brother for a ride back home.

For the remainder of that summer, Zack began hanging out more with Flyzik’s crowd when he wasn’t working, skateboarding or brushing up on his photography skills. They were all great people, but he found himself most attached to Vinny, who’d always served as a connection between Flyzik’s group and his usual crew. Fifth-wheeling was the only downside to his summer; he was enjoying himself aside from that. Oh, and his astral projection practices were proceeding decently, too.

Just like the others, Alex was finding this summer surprisingly a blast, too. A lot of that stemmed from dating Jack. Although it had been a bit awkward in the beginning, he was now having quite the fun with Jack; the challenges had evolved from planning out dates and shy embraces to matching Jack’s energy level and gently nudging him toward a direction in life. Although they had many common interests, their goals in life were vastly different… if Jack even _had_ a goal. As far as Alex could discern, Jack had no idea what he cared to do with his life come fall. To Alex, this was becoming a concern… but he continued holding onto the belief that he and Rian starting college would slap some sense into Jack. Not having his shit together wasn’t the only fact that Alex had learned about Jack. He’d also discovered some other interesting, new things about the other boy, traits that weren’t as obvious in plain friendship, such as Jack wasn’t as dominant as he’d assumed and that he also had somewhat of a shy side when it came to Alex.

Even though Jack having no sense of direction in life was slightly frustrating, Alex couldn’t bring himself to yell at his boyfriend because Jack tried his best in other areas of life, especially their relationship. Such had been the case one evening after Alex had gotten off work: 

_Alex’s phone lit up with a new message from Jack: Here. Doing a double-take because he hadn’t asked Jack for a ride, he stepped outside… and was met with the honk of a car horn. Shaking his head but also smiling slightly, he slipped into Jack’s car._

_“Hey, honey,” Jack’s eyes lit up at the sight of him._

_“Hey. You drove here and somehow made it in one piece?” Alex raised an eyebrow._

_“My driving’s not that bad,” Jack huffed, reaching behind to retrieve a gift box from the backseat. “Here,” he said, handing it to Alex, a wide smile breaking across his face._

_Alex eyed the box first and then Jack, who looked extremely proud. “What’s in it?” he asked, tearing away the… Christmas-themed gift wrap. No wonder Jack was gloating; the box had been wrapped neatly._

_“It’s a surprise,” Jack said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice as he watched Alex unwrap his present._

_“Yeah… uh, isn’t this my mom’s?” Alex held up the small tea-candles-set box, studying it at various angles._

_“Just open it,” Jack said impatiently, almost bouncing in his seat._

_And so, Alex did. Inside the box was a sandwich and two cookies, both wrapped in cellophane. A miniscule card was also tucked away in one of the corners. “Jack, what is this?” He picked up the card, which had the words “Hope you had a good day at work :)” scrawled on it in Jack’s handwriting._

_“It’s a ‘welcome home’ present thingy,” Jack chirped. “I made all that and I tried to clean the house.. or at least your room.”_

_Alex’s heart swelled with happiness. “You’re the best,” he said, his smile mirroring Jack’s. ‘“Thank you.” Without hesitating, he leaned over to give Jack a peck on the lips._

 

“Hey, you okay?” Jack piped up, scattering Alex’s thoughts.

It was a lazy day, and Alex was grateful for that. It wasn’t Jack’s fault that the dude liked to be out and about and that Alex sometimes lacked the energy to keep up with him. Today, they were both on Jack’s bed, Alex writing, or at least trying to write lyrics to a new song. Jack was watching some gameplay video on his phone.

“Yeah,” Alex shot Jack a smile. “Just… trying to… find some good words to throw in this song.”

“Make it about blowjobs or fucking or something,” Jack suggested, peering at him with a playful look in his dark eyes.

Alex chuckled. “We can’t make all our songs sexual.”

“Why not?” Jack shrugged. “We can just make better songs when we actually get signed by a company.”

“Better to practice now than later.” Alex returned his focus to the notebook in front of him. “Hope we can get this done by the end of summer. I don’t know if we’ll get that much time to work on this shit when Rian and I start school.”

“We have another month left,” Jack inched closer to him. “We can take our time.”

“Yeah.” If Alex had to be honest, finishing these songs and getting their band, which had started as a hobby and consisted of Jack, Rian, and Zack in addition to himself, known was the least of his concerns. He highly doubted that it would take off anyway as he and Rian wouldn’t be able to contribute much time to it anymore in a couple of months.

“You worry too much,” Jack sat up, setting his phone down. “You need to relax sometimes.”

“Then I’ll become like you,” Alex said half-heartedly, eyeing Jack.

“Is there something wrong with that?” Jack’s voice remained teasing, but Alex didn’t miss the flicker of hurt in his eyes.

Alex shook his head, sliding off the bed. “Nah. Wanna get something to eat?” This was a talk to be saved for some other time. He held out his hand to Jack, who enthusiastically accepted it.

“Yeah!”

“Where to?”

“Wherever you want,” Jack said cheerfully.  “It’s your turn to pick anyways.”

“Wanna just take a random bus and get off at a random stop? Or put in a random address in the GPS and find a restaurant close by?” Seeing the shine in Jack’s eyes confirmed that now wasn’t the time to sit him down and give him a serious talk.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Jack began leading the way.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me if you wanted to go by bus or car,” Alex said as Jack dragged him out into the hallway.

“Let’s do car this time. Wanna type in dirty words and see if we get any results?” Jack gave him a mischievous look.

“Let’s do it,” Alex smirked, pushing his worries away. Jack was right; there was another month of summer left. He’d deal with all of this later. “Let’s go.”

And so, they wound up in an area of the city that they ordinarily didn’t visit. But it didn’t matter that they were lost as fuck because they had Alex’s GPS, each other, and Rian’s lecture on using common sense playing in their minds. They’d found a sickass little cafe though, after a while of being lost. _And_ they managed to get back to their own homes afterwards, parting ways with a cake split in half and a kiss just as sweet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hi, here is the second part! Thank you so much for waiting, reading, and for the support <3 you are all awesome & i hope you all have a wonderful day!!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hope you've all been doing well! Thanks for reading <3 have a lovely day!
> 
>  ~~Kinkshame~~ Find me on [twitter!](https://twitter.com/jahgyong)


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